A close reading of Facing It
Take two mirrors as tall as you are, stand in front of one and look at your reflection. It is an endless bouncing of light, off into infinity. Reflections of reflections of you. This is what the author of “Facing It” has done with the poem. The theme of the poem “Facing It” revolves around reflections in the stone of the Vietnam Veteran’s memorial, reflections that offer insight or imagery to the author, and the reflection of the author as he walks along the memorial remembering a person he knew during the war. Actual reflections of people and things in the granite wall of the memorial figure heavily in the poem, and act as conduits to some of the imaginary reflections seen by the author. In the first two lines of the poem the author sees his “black face fade” into the granite of the wall.